I Can Attest to This

"For being a foreigner...is a sort of lifelong pregnancy--a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner...is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect."

- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

My Conclusions:

Without going into a self psychoanalysis that would be way too involved for me to feel comfortable sharing with the general public:

I think I am going to absolutely hate being pregnant.

I've hated being a foreigner everywhere I go. Switching between India and the US every 5 or so years hasn't been good for me - apparently I'm a person who prefers calm, peace and serenity.

Is there anywhere where national identity doesn't matter? Perhaps I should just go and live in Auroville.

Theres a big conclusion I can draw from this summer - and I know now exactly what it is that has to be done - but I'd really prefer not to.

Great - things just got so much more complicated now that I see the solution at hand.

:)

NASA and Elections

Any normal person has at one time in their life been obsessed with space and, especially if you've lived in the US of A - NASA .

If watching Apollo 13 was a momentous event in your life and you wanted to be an astronaut at some point - then I'd bet you begged your parents to send you to space camp as well.

And if you're like most families - you wouldn't have ever made it to the space camp.

Well, I never made it to space camp - not yet :) . But I did make it to the Johnson Space Center today. It was - for lack of a better phrase - pretty damn cool. I made the trip solo but it was still fun. I got to see a bunch of things including the historic mission control room. :)

And I bought a poster of the Earth - the one taken on Apollo 17 (the last manned mission to the moon) and if I'm correct was the picture featured on Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth.' The most widely printed photograph in history or something if I'm right.

So I am happy.

*****

Also all the US citizens out there that read this - please please please please please and once again PLEASE exercise your right to vote in the upcoming elections. (If you're a Rebuplican perhaps you'd prefer a nice night out on the town instead ;) just kidding) If you live in Chennai or abroad and need any information about how to vote via absentee ballot, here it is. Also if you have any questions, contact me and I'll answer them as best as I can.

Even if you think that the future of the country is going to the dogs, or all of the candidates are trash - vote for the best of the trash. Even if you 'don't do politics' please vote - or you won't be doing a lot of things if the wrong candidate gets voted in. And believe me there are some very wrong candidates out there.

If you're not voting - move to North Korea or something. Its your responsibility to voice your opinion.

And if you still think this is crap.

Vote for me - it'll make me happy.

Believe me random acts of kindness are good for your karma.

Phantom

One of these days I'm going to do a nice long post on why I and millions of others absolutely love this play

I'm Afraid of Obscure Things

I know its not just me - remember the The Teddy Bear's Picnic - that song, rhyme, poem or cult chant that for some reason our preschool teachers insisted on singing joyously to us, ignoring the seriously twisted undertones.

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about check out this particularly bizarre version - sung by 4 of the most famous people in US History)

Now I'm not hear to do a detailed analysis on what this strange little warble was actually intended for. Or on the sinister undertones of nursery rhyme on a whole (indicative of our warped culture of instilling fear in children at an early age. Apparently.) Its up to you to think that out. Or not.

But anyway, I am just hear to say that this scares the BEJESUS (yes the bejesus) out of me. And this is one of the few nursery rhymes that I remember being scared of even as child.

It was mentioned in an article I was just reading - and the only thing I could remember about it was "There was something really creepy about that poem."

Anyway for your reading pleasure - here it is.

Teddy Bear Picnic

If you go down to the woods today

You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Ev'ry teddy bear who's been good
Is sure of a treat today.
There's lots of marvelous things to eat
And wonderful games to play.

Beneath the trees where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Cause that's the way the teddy bears have their picnic.

If you go down to the woods today
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely down in the woods today
But safer to stay at home.

For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

Picnic time for teddy bears
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today
Watch them, catch them unawares
And see them picnic on their holiday.

See them gaily gad about
They love to play and shout;
They never have any care;

At six o'clock their mummies and daddies,
Will take them home to bed,
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

KEY Cm

Dm Am Dm A7
Dm A7 Dm
Eb Bb7 Db Bb7
Eb Bb7 Eb
Fm7 Edim Fm Bb7
Eb
Ab Eb Ab Eb Bb7 Eb

chorus:
Eb
Eb Edim Fm7 Bb7
C# Bb7 Edim Bb7
Eb Edim
Eb
Eb
Eb Ab
Ab A
Edim
G7 Fm Bb7
Eb Bb7-Eb-Bb7-Eb

Background: Jimmy Kennedy (1902-1984) from Omagh, Co. Tyrone, was a world-famous songwriter. He composed such songs as "Red Sails in the Sunset," inspired by a sunset over Portstewart strand in Co. Antrim, and "Teddy Bear's Picnic." The music was originally called the "Teddy Bear Two Step". It was written by American composer J.W. Bratton. Irishman Jimmy Kennedy later added the lyrics that have made this song famous.

My First Non Narcissistic Post

Sen. McCain’s Agents of Intolerance

The New York Times

May 24, 2008

Editorial

It took a long time for him to do it, but Senator John McCain has finally rejected the endorsements of two evangelical ministers — one whose bizarre and hate-filled sermons deeply offended both Catholics and Jews and the other who has used his pulpit to attack Muslims.

Mr. McCain had it right in his unsuccessful primary campaign eight years ago when he denounced the Christian right’s Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance” who exercised an “evil influence” over the Republican Party. It was particularly disturbing to see him cynically pander this year for the support of that same Christian right.

His belated decision to distance himself from two of the most extreme ministers was long overdue — and we suspect driven more by political ambition than by the principles he espoused in the past.

Mr. McCain had sought the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, a televangelist, for more than a year and finally won it in February, only to have the Catholic League denounce Mr. Hagee for waging “an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church.” Mr. Hagee called it “the Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” and a “false cult system.” The pastor apologized and said his remarks had been misconstrued, a truce was declared and Mr. McCain still welcomed the endorsement.

Then a recorded sermon emerged in which Mr. Hagee suggested that Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God’s plan to drive the Jews from Europe into Palestine — a final straw that led Mr. McCain to reject the Hagee endorsement. He also rejected the backing of the Rev. Rod Parsley whose anti-Muslim sermons have argued that America was founded, in part, to see “this false religion destroyed.”

Mr. McCain has tried to argue that his recent embrace of these two extremists was different from Barack Obama’s 20-year pastoral relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. The Rev. Wright’s bigoted and paranoid rants are appalling, but that does not lessen the hatefulness of the views espoused by the Rev. Hagee or the Rev. Parsley, nor does political expediency excuse Mr. McCain’s willingness to overlook those views until they became a political liability.

_____________________________________________________________________

If the US media has not blown this issue out of proportion by now - just as they did with the Rev. Wright issue, then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong.

As stated by the author in his/her particularly wordy and weak final paragraph - why should Senator McCain be let off the hook any more than Senator Obama for committing a similar if not worse crime? All the candidates are just as accountable for their actions - unless of course discrimination against certain races/religions (in this society) is considered more offensive than other.

Senator McCain's now former allegiances demonstrate without a doubt the degree to which politics supersede his policy. But wait a minute. Isn't that what the press and the tunnel visioned conservatives of this nation continually manhandle Senator Clinton for?

This race will be interesting in that a careful analysis will reveal the whether Americans truly believe that race,creed and color have no influence on how a human being should be viewed or treated.

My Music

If this makes any sense to you at all - then you and I are on the same page.

And you can recommend music for me to listen to.

Sometimes, I'm in the mood for very calm, relaxing, beautiful music - music that you can't be in a hurry to listen to - you aren't waiting for anything or expecting anything except enjoying the moment.

But music that is appealing to me in all my moods (which are many - believe me) is music that sounds like its coming from a state of the art surround sounds speaker system even on a crappy laptop. Music that envelopes you in whatever state of mind you are. And embodies that quote from that Acid Jazz album in "O.M.U - Jazz Addiction" -- "Rhythm is both the unyielding manacle and the demonic charge that drives a song." But then again - if there is too much going on like most pop rock and hip hop - everything just sounds well...noisy. So theres that subtle balance I guess between the drive, the music and the vocals that unless perfect just kills the song. But when the ratios are perfect - theres no stopping the song.

And I'm not talking about music of one language or genre - I'm pretty open to anything at all.

Any suggestions?

argh i hate double posting but this is necessary

Please excuse the rather strange picture of me up in the lift.

I just got a new camera - which I love btw and wanted to use the B&W

And hence the picture.

Enjoy the new look.